When you do unto the least of these...

Each night during devotion time the group has focused on a different passage. Luke 10:25-37, Matthew 25:35-40 and Micah 6:8 have been covered this week. Each passage dealing with a part of our service in Christ to the city of Cleveland. Who is my neighbor? When you clothe, feed, tend and visit the sick and poor you do unto Christ. Seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God. Part of the questions for devotion time are following a What? So what? Now what? line of thought. The 'What?' questions were posed as the facts of the passages. The So what? questions were posed as So What? Why do these things matter? Tomorrow's questions will be posed as Now what? What are these passages telling us about your future service?


Day four of service took us back to the Food Bank and the community kitchen. Again hundreds bologna sandwiches were made and then boxed for distribution. For a few youth in the group, spaghetti was the name of the game today. They processed about 90pounds of noodles, and over 50 pounds each of sausages and sauce. They then spooned the mixture into foil pans, where they were labeled, and stored in the refrigerator for later distribution.

Day four also brought volunteer work at a new agency for the week... The City Mission. TCM is celebrating 100 years of service to the city of Cleveland this year. They are an organization spreading the love of Christ to the most needy. They have a men's long term shelter, a women's and children's home, summer child programs, after school programs for children, as well as programs like clothing distribution, hygiene kit production and distribution and many more. Today, the donation program needed help organizing the hygiene kits. Over a 1,000 bags of soap, shampoo, razors, diapers, shaving creams, deodorant, etc had been donated to TCM prior to today. The group was in charge of unloading the bags of donated items and then organizing them into specific items and then repackaging them. 2 hours later, all the bags had been emptied, and reorganized. Someone later will be able to come in and pick from each box and make a complete kit for distribution.

The education piece was lead this afternoon by, Rev. Dr. Kerri Peterson-Davis. Pastor Kerri lead the group through discussion about homelessness and why is it important for us to know about it. The quote for the afternoon that was the basis for discussion was, "You can't know what you don't know, until you know it. But once you know it, you can't not know it." Some of the questions posed for discussion where, What did you not know about homelessness in Chicago? People are homeless because...? If it doesn't directly affect me, I...? It's not my problem because...? It is my problem because...?

As tomorrow and the end of the week approaches, we will be answering the Now what questions? Now what will you do when you get home? How will you take what you've learned this week and apply it to your own agencies?